Dr Norman was responding to the release
of the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury
that showed that despite GDP growth, unemployment will
remain above five percent until 2018, net government debt
will grow to $65 billion by 2016, and the current account
deficit will widen further to 6.5 percent in
2017.

“National is failing to build a strong, resilient,
and jobs-rich economy,” said Dr Norman.

“Treasury has
today confirmed that National’s signature asset sale
programme has cut the 2014/15 surplus by more than half to a
paper-thin $86 million.

“Asset sales will leave the
Government with a handy sum of money to spend in an election
year while leaving us all $108 million worse off every year,
forever.

“Net government debt will peak in 2016 at $65
billion, up $55 billion from the $10 billion of government
debt on the books when National took office.

“One of the
first tasks of a new Government will be to get National’s
record pile of debt under control.”

Dr Norman pointed to
several red flags for the New Zealand economy raised in the
Treasury report.

“New Zealand's economic recovery is
betraying the same underlying structural weaknesses as the
last one under the Clark/Cullen administration; National has
materially failed to rebalance our economy away from debt
and consumption towards savings, investment, and exports,”
Dr Norman said.

“Treasury are predicting the current
account deficit to worsen to 6.5 percent of GDP by 2017. We
are funding a large part of this economic growth cycle with
debt, not income.

“Today’s figures also show that if
John Key got two more terms as Prime Minister, unemployment
would still be higher than when he first came to office. His
Government has failed to create jobs and a prosperous
economy for New Zealand families.

“National is failing
our children – one in four of our children continue to
live in poverty; failing our environment – our carbon
emissions are set to climb dramatically in the next 20
years; and failing to manage our economy to in a prudent and
balanced way to create good-paying jobs.

“We can build
prosperity without getting us deeper and deeper into debt,
but we will need a new kind of government to do
it.”

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